Advance Auto / CarQuest merger

[MSeriesRebuild]

Just wondering if anyone is aware that this has taken place?

CARQUEST has been bought out by Advance. Locally as we have CARQUEST and Advance stores side by side on main St., many wonder what the outcome may be. The buzz is that over a 3 year time span working from the west coast eastward, changes will be made, no one seems to know exactly what that means. Our local Advance is a corporate store, while the CARQUEST is an independent. I do know that both stores can now tap into the other's computer system to access parts that the other may not have access too. This has been a + for the Advance here, as CARQUEST has a much broader line in the area of vintage autos than Advance does; so if you have an Advance who can't help with vintage stuff, you can now walk into Advance with a CARQUEST part # and they can have your part from CARQUEST through their supply chain soon.

My main question is to you folks on the west coast. Have you heard of this merger and what changes between the 2 stores have you seen taking place? What is your local buzz saying?

[Cal_Gary]

Haven't heard anything here in Utah-hope they maintain their vintage stock though.
Gary

[m37jarhead]

There are Carquest stores here in Arizona but few and far between. Not aware of any Advance.
The biggies here are NAPA, Auto Zone and O'Reilly.
Thanks for the tip on Carquest vintage.
Jerry

[MSeriesRebuild]

There are Carquest stores here in Arizona but few and far between. Not aware of any Advance.
The biggies here are NAPA, Auto Zone and O'Reilly.
Thanks for the tip on Carquest vintage.
Jerry

CARQUEST Corporate is located near us in Raleigh, NC; with a huge distribution hub there and in Columbia, SC. Easy for us to get parts quickly. I have no idea how many outlets they have as far west as your location.

[DAP]

Charles in your opinion is/are Car Quest parts of a better quality (or same quality but cheaper price) as NAPA? Or in this day and age is it all overseas made and of the same quality? I am looking for a wide generalization here unless you have observed that "X supplier" has better exhaust parts and Y supplier" has better ignition parts, etc.

[MSeriesRebuild]

CARQUEST and NAPA carry many of the same lines. Like NAPA, they have some cheaper lines, then a better grade line in many products. Like all the rest, you have to check what is in the box to know what you are getting. They know what we want, so if there is an issue with offshore stuff, they usually call to see if we want it or not. We steer away from offshore stuff as much as we possibly can.

[m37jarhead]

It's a little off the Advance/Carquest subject but related to quality.
Many of us have ordered MV parts from the advertiers in Supply Line and MV Magazine.
Vendors like Vintage Power Wagon, Vintage Wiring of Maine, Rick Larsen Decals,
Beechwood Canvas, M-Series Rebuild, G503, MW Military, Wee-Bee Webbing and a host
of others have supplied quality NOS, new and reproduction parts.
I'm sure YOUR list would include many more.

While restoring my GPW, I was more than a little "disappointed" on the quality of the Jeep
parts from RAPCO. Shoddy would be a good description of the quality of the parts. Seems
like many parts were made in Venezuala and over seas. The parts just didn't fit properly
and worse, looked like amateurs manufactured them. But that's been a few years ago and
maybe Rapco has cleaned up their act.
Just a word to the wise here; you usually get what you pay for.
Jerry

[MSeriesRebuild]

Jeep parts are the absolute worst for what you describe. They are popular vehicles in India and the Philippines; a lot of the repro Jeep stuff comes from there. It leaves a lot to be desired, if you want to go bald quickly, one of the repro tubs from MD Juan will make it happen sooner rather than later. Kaiser-Willys Auto Supply is a huge pusher of this stuff. They boost it up big saying absolute top quality parts, could have fooled me; BUT in many cases it is all there is, so you deal with it as best you can in cases where you can do no better.

[MSeriesRebuild]

Well now I see how this issue has turned out locally. CARQUEST is gone. Sold out to a NAPA independent jobber here in Norwood. The other store owned by the same folks 10 miles north in the next town is now a NAPA corporate store.

[Cal_Gary]

Hi Charles,
I spotted a CarQuest here in Salt Lake on Saturday-must not have been on the early convert list....
Gary

[MSeriesRebuild]

Hi Charles,
I spotted a CarQuest here in Salt Lake on Saturday-must not have been on the early convert list....
Gary

Latest word on what happened here is this sell out involving NAPA had nothing to do with the Advance/CARQUEST merger, other than leaving a loop hole in the CARQUEST contract so the sell out could take place. CarQuest and NAPA have virtually the same thing on the shelf, mostly from the same suppliers. CARQUEST had more flexible pricing with their garage accounts like us for sure. I can't buy some items from NAPA at the pricing we were getting from CARQUEST. I'm not talking any huge differences, but then every little bit does matter.

[MSeriesRebuild]

Another update. The local owner of the CARQUEST turned NAPA is now facing a huge lawsuit from CARQUEST Corporate based on breach of their contract with CARQUEST. Word is NAPA Corporate told them at the time of the sale not to worry, their lawyers had everything taken care of. NOT.